What movies have you seen recently?

[superjames1992]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

I finally got around to seeing Get Out. Good movie. The twist caught me by surprise. I knew something was going on, but the method came a bit out of left field, though I guess it made more sense when you considered the father was a neurosurgeon.

They did a good job of transforming Rose from a stone cold fox into a manipulative you-know-what in the blink of an eye!

[marshallfever]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Last Tuesday, I saw Equalizer 2, fun movie but not as good as the first one. The first one had a more down to earth superhero feeling and a good villain, this one was predictable, fun movie though.

[JMD]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

The wife and I rented Ready Player One on the 1X in UHD this past weekend. Good movie. She isn't into gaming at all and she loved it.

[ODogg]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

I finally got around to seeing Get Out. Good movie. The twist caught me by surprise. I knew something was going on, but the method came a bit out of left field, though I guess it made more sense when you considered the father was a neurosurgeon.

They did a good job of transforming Rose from a stone cold fox into a manipulative you-know-what in the blink of an eye!

Have you heard the theory that this movie ties into BEING JOHN MALKOVICH??

[TripleCrown9]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

I finally got around to seeing Get Out. Good movie. The twist caught me by surprise. I knew something was going on, but the method came a bit out of left field, though I guess it made more sense when you considered the father was a neurosurgeon.

They did a good job of transforming Rose from a stone cold fox into a manipulative you-know-what in the blink of an eye!

I mean, she was stone cold fox the whole movie lol.

[Armor and Sword]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Happy Death Day

Actually really enjoyed this "Groundhog Day" horror/slasher flick. Kept me, my wife and son highly entertained start to finish. A pleasant surprise.

Seeing MI6 this Saturday night. Looking forward to it.

[Blzer]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Disney's Christopher Robin

**WARNING: I get a little bit into what some of the characters do and don't do, even though I don't really get much into the overall story.**

Disney's Christopher Robin serves as a companion piece to Goodbye Christopher Robin in that they play different parts of CR's life. Goodbye Christopher Robin takes place during his childhood and has small parts of him growing to a young adult by the end, and Disney's Christopher Robin spends the first ten minutes advancing through his raising years rather quickly so we can get to his adulthood. Outside of the source material, the comparisons of the two films stop there. Disney's Christopher Robin is much more family-oriented fiction, whereas Goodbye Christopher Robin is slightly more adult-themed nonfiction. I'll say that at my age, as much as I loved both films at their cores, I did prefer one over the other.

Now, let's address "the Heffalump in the room" here: This film will receive nearly unanimous praise and everyone who reads this will adore by what they just saw on screen by the time the last page reads "THE END." You will see the 9's and 10's pour aplenty on here, and they will be absolutely justified to the point that I won't disagree with a single thing that they say, truly. I am no different, as while watching this I tapped into early childhood memories of me watching the Winnie the Pooh cartoon. All of the feels were there and they were strong. Parents and children had a joyous experience with the entire film, and my face may even hurt from smiling too much. I will mostly let every other review speak on that, though. I want to try and touch on the moments that others may have trouble expressing or just won't bother to, and explain away how my score (for better or worse) is emphasized by other elements of the film that may or may not have personally worked for me as well.

In some ways, I would have to call this a mixed bag. Though when I say the words "mixed bag" I'm not referring to the quality of what was on screen, just how my head coped with what was on screen. Every issue I have with the film is mostly not a film issue at all, but rather it is my conflicted mind wondering what kind of film I expected to watch. Having just come off of Goodbye Christopher Robin not one year ago, I was trying to decide whether I was watching yet another biopic of sorts here, or if this was just a fictional fantasy adventure. When it initially seemed like it wanted to be the former, eventually it revealed that it was going to be the latter, and boy they went the whole nine yards with that. Upon first glimpse CR is just letting his imagination run wild with him, but alas it turned out that these stuffed animals are not inanimate, but actually alive and talking. Yes, beneath the surface one can decide to create allegories for the animals' lively spirits representing something larger than they actually were, but in the last half hour of the film it feels like a very shallow version of: "Nope, they're real... accept it and move on." The tone shifted sort of fast without warning into something a bit childish, and not in the absolute best way. It kind of hit a wall with me, because initially they were going so well with what just felt like the imagination route, and I feel I would have preferred that much more. Then again, when I was a child I think I saw the animals more as actual animals and not stuffed objects in CR's imagination, so if I'm a kid watching this film I don't think this is a demerit in any way at all. Sadly, I'm now a thirty-year-old man critiquing a lovable children's film to the bitter end, possibly undeservedly so.

Which leads me to my next personal predicament: I didn't know which lens I was supposed to view this film from. I hate to make the immediate comparison, but Goodbye Christopher Robin strictly stuck to one tone and allowed me to find perspective as an audience member for where I belonged watching it. This film begins with a young CR and the playful animals expressing their personalities to the fullest, so I began watching it as the cartoon and all was fitting. Then a bit of time goes by without the animals to set up CR's current status in the workplace, with his family, and even with a neighbor (whose tiny intermittent "subplot" feels strangely incomplete, unless there was an after-credits scene). During this early stage I figuratively heard children shuffling in their seats, and I literally heard a young girl ask: "Where's Pooh Bear?" Given the expectation the trailers appeared to provide (which I avoided before seeing the film), you'd understand why the youthful ADHD crowd can get a bit restless with the slow pacing of these moments.

Then later Pooh appears and all is righted again, but I sit and wonder where kids are with this bear and his furry friends, because I legitimately do not know. Do they know him in name only but have not read the books or watched the old cartoons? Are they familiar with the animals' voices, quotable lines and unique mannerisms? It's not exactly an ongoing marketed icon anymore, and they might be too busy in front of their Smartphones anyway to know why we who grew up with them find every moment so wondrous. So again, here is where I'm completely out of the know: if children are not as well-versed with the characters at large, I wonder if they'll get as much out of this film as I would if I was there age, or as I did now. Don't be too alarmed, though! There are still plenty of moments to make this movie enjoyable for all ages, whether or not you are privy to all that which is Winnie the Pooh.

Oh yes, Pooh Bear: he was perfection. It's clear that the screenwriters know him very well as to make sure that every piece of dialogue that he says has this poetry about it, accompanied justly with Jim Cummings' original voice work. Every third line that he says will give you a chuckle, whether he is wittily responding to CR or talking to himself. We get a "Think think think" and more than enough honey references (which you can never have enough of). His humor is very deadpan and it works best when you see his innocent beady eyes conveying those words with that little mouth. I'll admit that I miss the cartoon design, but they took enough creative liberties to blend the real stuffed animal with the cartoon version and you get the best of both versions. He is both dependent and dependable, both nescient and thought-provoking, both wanting to make you laugh and cry. I cried exactly two times in this film, and both had to do with a Pooh spoken line or spoken action. They needed to capture this for the film to work, and they did it ever so well.

Eeyore and Tigger were also both real hits and exact representations of their cartoon selves. I would say that Eeyore will win over more with the adults when it comes to his dark and depressing lines (again, this is also one of those times where "if you understand the characters already it works much better"). Tigger gets to bounce, sing and laugh, all with original J.C. voice work and that really means something to me. The misses to me came with Piglet and Rabbit, which although it's unfortunate that their original voice actors have passed away they did not do enough to get close to those voices either. Rabbit always reminded me of a Squidward in the cartoon (I know that SpongeBob came afterward), but had no such notions here... just a couple of "I'm healthy and like things clean" kinds of lines. He also wasn't heavily featured, alongside Owl, Kanga and Roo. Piglet was mostly fine, but was missing the voice, never let out an "Ooooh, d-d-d-d-dear," and never really let his fearfulness become an affecting part of the story. Good thing Pooh made up for most of it, and honestly I could have completely done without the other characters and would have been just fine... yet at the same time Tigger and Eeyore's direct inclusions were too good to pass up.

Ewan McGregor was convincing and looked like he had a great time with the role. Hayley Atwell kind of got to sleepwalk through her mother/wife role as she didn't have much to do (though I guess we now know that Peggy Carter got busy with Christopher Robin while Captain America was in cryo-sleep), the daughter was good but was in the wrong film for focus on her end (even though they try and maintain that theme throughout, it's not explored very fully), and literally every other character was over-the-top and may have fit with this film but were also outlandish and exaggerated to the point that I really didn't care. As I was saying before, keep this as CR and Pooh having adventures and I would be none the wiser as to the rest of it.

I hope that you can take my review as just very level-headed. There were just a few too many things I found to either be inconsistent, or at the very least made me perceive it as such. That might be more a fault of mine than a fault of the film's, but that's why I get my own vote on here and others will get theirs. My last minor quip was slightly mentioned before, but the overall pacing was pretty slow. I was okay with that, but I am trying to speak for the masses. I think Goodbye Christopher Robin was a film that was lighter on its feet regarding the pace, but it also is a little less kid-friendly since its focus is not on the animals (and never gives life to them, imaginable or otherwise).

Despite the things I've pointed out, I think you can chalk them up as personal issues only, and I can't recommend this film enough. I mean it's Winnie the Pooh, for heaven's sake... of course it will be lovable! My audience applauded at the end, and I did right alongside them. It has something for everybody, and plenty of it. It almost seems sinful to dismiss this film in any sort of way, and don't let my score be an indication of how much I actually did love moments of this film and urge everyone to go check out and see, specifically if you have children, a connection with the characters, or simply if you have a soul. Yet if you missed out on Goodbye Christopher Robin, I also recommend that you see it at some point for something that is probably less fictionalized and slightly more adult-oriented.

[marshallfever]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Have you heard the theory that this movie ties into BEING JOHN MALKOVICH??

Do explain please, I enjoyed Get Out and Loved being John Malkovich!! I can kind of see some similarities.

[ODogg]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Do explain please, I enjoyed Get Out and Loved being John Malkovich!! I can kind of see some similarities.

Well basically the woman who figured out how to do being john malkovich figured out a way to monetize the experience and put it to work in the Get out movie...that's the fan theory in short.

[ODogg]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

I watched "You were never really here" starring Joaquin Phoenix and wow, talk about a slow burn, crazy movie. I have read it's like Taxi Driver and I agree.

I really enjoyed it, Phoenix is probably the best actor in Hollywood right now because I really think he can portray crazy, odd, fury unlike anyone else but be warned, this movie is slow paced and builds and if that is not your kind of movie (my wife hates movies that "build") then don't waste your time.

[daflyboys]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Watched The Equalizer again. Gonna be a little while til I can go into my local Lowe's or Home Depot.

[doubledeuceR6]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Watched The Equalizer again. Gonna be a little while til I can go into my local Lowe's or Home Depot.

Almost saw Equalizer 2 last night but opted for the new Mission Impossible instead since it started a little earlier.

Was pretty good! Lots of good twists, some were predictable but had a few that I was wrong on and it went another way. Some top notch action and the driving scenes were very Jason Bourne-espue.

[Blzer]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

and the driving scenes were very Jason Bourne-espue.

Well I would kind of disagree here, especially if you're talking about the latter three Bourne films. Greengrass has that shaky cam going on and has that drum score happening all the time, and Bourne is just as intent on running into things as he is avoiding things. Here the cam is very steady and barely anything is ever nicked, all in pretty much silence from score (sometimes it'll pop up, but it won't have a drum base/bass to it).

Unless you're just talking about the intensity of them, in which case I can agree to an extent there for sure.

[doubledeuceR6]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Unless you're just talking about the intensity of them, in which case I can agree to an extent there for sure.

Yeah the camera style isn't really what I was referring to although some of the camera angles felt like Jason Bourne. The aggressive nature in which Cruise drove the car like when he yanked the hand brake just reminded me of that style I guess. There were just some really quick instances like that made it feel like a Bourne movie. Either way I enjoyed the heck out of the action scenes, Bourne-esque or not.

[RockinDaMike]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Christopher Robin

Really enjoyed it. Brought back a lot of memories and it was a very sweet story. I think kids will like it, but at the beginning might be too slow for younger kids. The voice actors were excellent, especially Brad Garrett as Eeyore and Jim Cummings who did Pooh and Tigger